Oh my: Pelosi calls for House ethics investigation of Weiner

posted at 6:30 pm on June 6, 2011 by Allahpundit

I thought for sure the Democratic line on this would be, “It’s over, he accepted responsibility, let’s move on.” Nope. So worried are they about the fallout that they’re willing to prolong the story as long as they can if it means they can get on the other side of it and isolate Weiner in doing so.

Or is this simply Pelosi knowing/expecting that the GOP will launch an investigation anyway and figuring that she might as well stand up for “good government” while she can?

But after his news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that she was calling for a House ethics committee probe into whether government resources had been mishandled.

“I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi added that she was “deeply disappointed and saddened” for Weiner’s wife and constituents.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) agreed that an ethics panel must review the situation in order to “remove all remaining doubt about this situation.” “Ultimately, Anthony and his constituents will make a judgment about his future,” Israel said in a statement.

Hard to tell from the photos published by Big Government today whether he was using “official resources” to sext anyone, but if he was reckless enough to send outre stuff from e-mail/Facebook accounts bearing his actual name — here’s the latest from Radar — he was probably reckless enough to use government computers/phone lines at some point. Meagan Broussard claims that he once gave her a phone number that turned out to be for one of his offices, in fact. Which makes me wonder: Are we going to end up with an Ensign-type scenario here, where he hangs on hoping that the House ethics committee doesn’t find anything too damaging and then decides to resign when they finally do?

The “official resources” angle won’t hurt him much anyway. What’ll destroy him, of course, is if any of these women are underaged, a possibility which Weiner couldn’t categorically rule out when asked about it by reporters. (Behold this screencap for the ages.) Click the image below to watch the key exchange from the presser; should any of his “women” turn out to be girls, he’s finished. Exit question: Why wasn’t he more careful about hiding his indiscretions? Normally I don’t buy psychobabble about how some bad actors act recklessly because deep down they want to get caught, but … e-mailing barechested pics that clearly identify his face and sending raunchy messages from accounts bearing his name? Dude?